The Perfect Sinner (cake boyxboy)

(X) The Dire Raven

"C'mon, Ash, quit doing that!" Michael snapped, concentrating to keep his eyes on the deserted road, but his concentration seemed to fade every once in a while, focusing on Ashton.

Ashton kept poking his best friend's arm, to irritate him.

Mike flipped him off. "You're really bored, aren't ya?" Mike asked, grunting under his breath.

Ash grinned a nod, sitting back on the cushion of the passenger seat. He rolled his eyes, then letting a sigh escape him. "Well, we've been in this car for six bloody hours, and you're falling asleep on me so I'll keep poking you," Ashton said, continuing his abundantly annoying poking game. Truth be told, Ashton wasn't poking Mike to keep him awake, he just wanted to annoy Michael, because annoyed Michael was really cute and funny.

Michael stopped the obsessive poking by taking Ashton's wrist. Ashton was surprised and practically squirmed when Michael intertwined their fingers.

Ashton rolled his eyes, huffing. He sat back in his chair again, his cheeks turning crimson. But he never withdrew his hand, he liked their skin to skin feeling of palms.

"How long till we get home, Clifford?"

"Uh..." Michael started looking around the deserted freeway. "Well we just passed the Jhenis border line, so in a few minutes, I'd say."

"Cool." Ashton nodded, looking out the window. He loved road trips, to be honest, but by the end, they always got a bit annoying, especially when all you wanted to do was sleep in your own bed. The boys had a blast in Sydney, and partied all night. They bonded over the trip, and one might say that now they're a little bit.. too close. Then they only had two hours of sleep before they hit the road. "Tell me why we didn't just sleep in?"

"Because," Mike replied, "we didn't want to get home to find one of the lads dead."

"Rightly so," Ash agreed, biting his bottom lip as he nodded in agreement. "How do you think they're getting along since we left?"

"One can never tell with Calum; it's either they hate each other even more or they're not talking-correction: Calum hates Luke even more, God knows why," Mike shrugged.

"Calum doesn't hate Luke!" Ash protested.

"Is that so?" Michael flinched a brow, unimpressed.

"Yeah, Calum's just like that to everyone."

"You're saying you don't notice how Cal targets Luke?"

"Uh..." Ashton knew why Calum was an asshole to Luke, but it wasn't his secret to tell and it wasn't Michael's business to know. As soon as Ash hesitated, Mike nodded victoriously, quelling him up.

"I know the guy is evil, but he takes it really hard on Luke and Luke is really sensitive beneath everything," Mike explained sympathetically.

"He's not evil!"

"C'mon, Ash, he's evil, cold-hearted, a bully.... shall I go on?"

Ashton huffed a laugh. "How can you call someone so small a bully?"

"He's like a little chihuahua," Mike remarked. "Small but feisty." With that, both boys fell into a fit of laughter, agreeing to the loosely genuine jape. Calum wasn't much smaller than them, but he was a year younger that Mike and one might say scrawny. Besides, he had a baby face.

They were already driving by the local Beach, detouring from Downtown. Time passed by in a heart beat before Ash and Mike were already on the beach house street.

...

Luke scattered around the bedroom, trying to find his phone. It was always so easy for Luke to lose his phone. As if he wasn't already feeling beyond flustered and anxious.